ASP.NET Chat Design help needed.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pete
  • Start date Start date
P

Pete

I'd like to add a basic chat application to my web site to get the members
talking more, I've decided to limit the number of users to 30. There will
be a seperate popup with a frame & three pages

page 1 = list of users (updates every 10 seconds)
page 2 = content / text (updates every 3 seconds)
page 3 = text box to type in.

I'll be using meta refresh to update the page(s) to the users on a regular
basis (every 3-10 seconds). My quandry really is here to store the text
content.....

I'm considering putting it in the Application object rather than the
database due to the frequency of requests to it (it would mean a lot of
read/writes). However, I'm a bit concerned about the scalability of the
solution. Would 30 users all accessing the Application object at the
intervals I've suggested kill performance the site as a whole, if so what
other options have I got?

Any ideas / Comments / Suggestions?

--
Cheers

Pete

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Hello,

You embed a windows user control in your application as the chat window.
This, however, has some restrictions:

- IE only
- The .NET framework must be installed on every client.

It's a possibility.

Regards,
Kristof
 
Thanks Kristof, I have considered this approach and may well offer it for
"Advanced users" who may be willing to do the install. However I willl still
need to offer the basic html version to everyone else (90% of members).

I've done a few calcs and if I keep the max users at 30 and the refresh
times I've suggested I'll need to update / read the application object 13
times / second (on average) which to me sounds dangerous. I'm guessing there
must be a solution though.

Pete
 
Perhaps you could create a custom singleton object. Then, you do not have
the use the application to store, delete and edit the conversation.

You have to make sure that it is thread safe but i think it can serve your
needs.

Regards,
Kristof
 
I created a chat application and stored the text content in an application
variable. I never tested it with more than four users, where it worked
fine. But I have no idea how it would function with 30 users. I think I
refreshed the pages every 8 seconds.
 
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